Jennifer 8. Lee

For the 1992 film, see Jennifer Eight.

Jennifer 8. Lee
Born	Jennifer Lee March 15, 1976 (1976-03-15) New York, New York, U.S.
Ethnicity	American of Chinese/Taiwanese descent
Occupation	Journalist
Notable credit(s)	The New York Times

Jennifer 8. Lee (Chinese name: simplified Chinese: 李竞; traditional Chinese: 李競; pinyin: Lǐ Jìng) (born March 15, 1976) is an American journalist. She has written for various sections of The New York Times for several years.

Early life and career

Lee was born on March 15, 1976 in New York City to immigrants from Kinmen, an island off the coast of China's Fujian province. Lee was not given a middle name at birth, but instead chose "8." as a teenager. For many Chinese people, the number eight symbolizes prosperity and good luck. She graduated from Hunter College High School in 1994 and is a member of the Harvard College class of 1998.

Journalist and author

At Harvard, Lee was the vice president of the Harvard Crimson. She interned at The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, Newsday and The New York Times during college. Lee graduated in 1999 with a degree in applied mathematics and economics from Harvard. She joined the Times in 2001, one and a half years after graduating from Harvard.

Lee wrote a book about the history of Chinese food in the United States and around the world, titled The Fortune Cookie Chronicles documenting the process on her blog. She reported the unlikely, but true, story of how a batch of fortune cookies created 110 Powerball lottery winners. To the surprise of many non-Chinese readers, she reported that fortune cookies are found in many countries but not China and that fortune cookies may have originated in Japan. Warner Books editor Jonathan Karp struck a deal with Lee to write a book about "how Chinese food is more all-American than apple pie." She appeared on The Colbert Report to promote the book. The book was #26 on the New York Times bestseller list.

In December 2009 Lee accepted a buyout from the New York Times who offered them to all newsroom staff in October as part of an attempt to cut 100 newsroom positions due to budget cuts .

Lee has served on the advisory panel for the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation's "News Challenge", and has assisted the whistleblowing site WikiLeaks, dealing with the press and with social networking sites. She helped the organization with its April 2010 release of a video showing the July 12, 2007 Baghdad airstrike.

External links

• New York Times archive of Lee's articles
• The Fortune Cookie Chronicles – Jennifer 8. Lee's book blog
• Ask a Reporter: Jennifer 8. Lee
• Nu Shortcuts in School R 2 Much 4 Teachers an article by Jennifer 8. Lee
• Jennifer 8. Lee hunts for General Tso at the 2008 Taste3 Conference, video courtesy TED Partner Series
• Lee, Jennifer 8. "In Chinatowns, All Sojourners Can Feel Hua". New York Times pp. B29, B37. (January 27, 2006). Hua means Chinese. Huabu means Chinatown. Huaqiao means Chinese sojourners (overseas Chinese). Lee celebrates the Chinatowns in her hometown, New York City.
• Nugent, Katherine. "New York Times Reporter Tells Students to Ask the Right Questions.", Medill School of Jourmalism. (November 22, 2005)
• http://gawker.com/5422800/jenny-8-lee-takes-buyout-exodus-at-nyt-metro-section